Shhh, even if the secret isn't secret

Updated 5:04 pm, Monday, September 9, 2013

Much of the information declared secret by the National Security Agency never was much of a secret.

Much of the information declared secret by the National Security Agency never was much of a secret.

Photo: Patrick Semansky, Associated Press

Shhh, even if the secret isn't secret

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By now, we all know that the National Security Agency is one big vacuum cleaner when it comes to our communications. The NSA and the White House would have us believe national security has been compromised.

Sorry, it hasn't been.

We, the people, know what our government didn't want us to know and we're all rolling along just fine.

By now, thanks to documents also provided by leaker Edward Snowden, we also know:

The CIA after 9/11 now has the biggest budget of any spy agency.

The NSA has been concerned about rogue analysts who might leak “secrets” (and Snowden still leaked).

We trust nuclear-armed Pakistan about as far as we can throw it and that we know close to diddly about North Korea, despite that huge CIA budget.

Our intelligence communities see terrorism as the biggest threat out there.

Mexico and other friends have been spied upon.

Shhhh. These are as “secret” as every breathing moment of the Kardashians, but secrets nonetheless, according to the federal government.

They are simply because they spare our leaders some embarrassment.

We now also know —the latest revelation from the Washington Post's treasure trove of documents provided by Snowden — that the NSA has been perfecting its tools for overcoming the encryption that protects our data online.

The NSA is red-faced over this one, too.

The rest of us, however, are richer for the knowledge — and, by the way, not much surprised.

And this leads us to the debate on whether to respond militarily to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people.

President Barack Obama, on an offensive to persuade Congress of the need for military strikes, will address the nation Tuesday. Here's something he should address.

Members of Congress get to go to that “classified” hearing to see the “proof” the White House says it has that this chemical attack has occurred and that the Syrian government is the agent of the attack.

The rest of us have not been privy.

Insofar as is possible, the president should remedy that.

We're talking here of an issue that involves Americans risking their lives and taking lives.

The biggest non-secret of all? There is something very wrong with this picture.